Sahabuddin
From the age of 16, Shahabuddin has been earning a living outside of his village. While in the beginning, the perspective to leave not just his home district Murshidabad but his state, West Bengal, scared him, he meanwhile finds it normal to live for the major part of the year in 2,700 km-far-away Kerala. The South Indian state has been going through a construction boom, which for a trained mason like him, ensures constant and well retributed jobs. He who didn’t even speak Hindi just 10 years ago, can now easily interact with contractors both in Hindi and Malayalam language; thanks to a network of Bengali and increasingly, also Malayali friends, he doesn’t feel lonely in Kerala. Just in the contrary, he’s started to stretch his stays more and more, going home hardly once in a year. Nonetheless, in his stories one cannot miss the nostalgia of every migrant – for the freshness of the vegetables in his region; for the lush green landscape criss-crossed by rivers and water bodies of West Bengal; and yes, also for a childhood whose highlights consisted of bathing in the river and dreaming to fly by airplane, one day…